Bel-Air Drive-In
2529 W. Locust Street,
Davenport,
IA
52804
2529 W. Locust Street,
Davenport,
IA
52804
3 people
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The Bel-Air Drive-In located in Davenport opened July 14, 1948 with Gale Storm in “It Happened on 5th Avenue”. It was closed in 1986. It had a capacity for 700 cars.
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Lost Memory
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Recent comments (view all 10 comments)
1970 aerial photo posted here.
July 14th, 1948 Grand opening ad in photo section.
The ramps and fences(and gate or gates?) may still be there there? The site may now used as a fairground and a parking site for the fairground?
And possibly a house too?
The entrance(and/or the exit?) roads may still be there too?
April 23, 1950 article about Bel Air Drive-In owner Julius Geertz. Article will enlarge within link.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/16rxpNJvHc1YLLprOg1xW9S0rvYK2PZ3M/view?fbclid=IwAR2TqA4-WkK5VoYFulnZcV1t-CYaZNaCnK-6riCNXQdCCZ5mrioMI_8WSqE
March 25, 1964 Motion Picture Exhibitor: Walter Allen, Maquoketa, has purchased the Bel-Air Drive-In, Davenport, from George Dinelli, Peru, Ill. Allen, who also operates the Corral Drive-In, Moline, Ill., plans some renovating at the Davenport Drive-In.
The entrance/exit road still exits, the gates still exist – what looks like the base of the street sign still exists and also possibly the base or partial base of the screen structure.
The Dispatch of Moline IL reported on April 3, 1956 that earlier that day, high winds had blown down “an addition to the movie screen at the Bel-Air Drive-In Theater,” causing minor injury to 5-year-old Bradley Zoeckler, son of Bel-Air employee Richard Zoeckler.
The Dispatch (Moline IL), March 28, 1970: “Davenport’s Bel Air Drive-in movie theater, first in the Quad-City region when it was built, was sold yesterday. National Amusements, Inc., owner of the Memri, Semri and Oasis drive-in theaters in the Quad-Cities, bought the Bel Air from Allen-Franklin Theater Corp. The Bel-Air opened in 1945 at the location in the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds complex.”